Past landscape explains forest periphery‐to‐core gradient of understorey plant communities in a reforestation context

Abstract

Aim To disentangle whether long-range periphery-to-core gradient of forest understorey plants could be attributed to past forest landscape and/or to current environmental filtering processes. We investigated (1) whether species response to past land use (ancient versus recent forest) was consistent with species response to distance to present forest edge (core versus periphery) (2) what life-history traits explained plant response to distance to present edge and past land use (3) whether distance to past forest edge explained current species distribution better than distance to present forest edge.Location Temperate forests in the northern half of France (80,000 km²).Methods Local climate, soil and stand characteristics, past land use, and present and past landscape metrics were collected on 11,936 plots using National Forest Inventory data and historical maps from 1831. Logistic regressions were applied to determine the response patterns of 181 species to present and past landscape, while controlling for local habitat quality (soil, climate and stand).Results Species response to distance to present edge very well matched response to past land use. Plant traits related to colonization capacity explained species response to present edge and past land use. The spatial distribution of 42 species was better explained by distance to forest edge in 1831, 37 species were better explained by distance to present edge and 24 species were better explained by distance to present edge and past land use.Main conclusions Two mechanisms were responsible for the long-range periphery-to-core gradient: (1) past landscape and colonization processes and (2) present edge-related mechanisms. This suggests that plant community differences between periphery and core zones are thus related to dispersal limitation and not only to environmental filters. Our results underline the need to combine landscape ecology and history and have important implications for forest plant dynamics and conservation in the context of climate change.

Edge influence on understorey plant communities depends on forest management

“…In contrast, interior species were more often slow-colonizing species, acidophilous and reproducing both by seeds and vegetatively (Pellissier et al, 2013). The effect of distance to edge, 13 Stream Biofilm and Ecosystem Research Laboratory, School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, École Polytechnique Féderale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland hereafter also referred to as 'edge influence', on species richness has been related to mechanisms such as past land-use change (Berges et al, 2016), changes in light regime (Honnay, Verheyen, & Hermy, 2002) and altered soil moisture content (Gehlhausen et al, 2000).…”

Changes in forest cover in Sudety Mountains during the last 250 years: patterns, drivers, and landscape-scale implications for nature conservation

“…Patches of ancient forest are considered as more valuable for nature conservation than recent forests (that is, forest created artificially on previously nonforested grounds). Therefore, sites intended for afforestation should be placed next to patches of ancient forests in order to enable ancient forest species migration [7,14,21,22]. Due to the phenomenon of extinction debt, the actual species richness in a patch can be influenced by past events.…”

Écologie historique et ancienneté de l’état boisé : concepts, avancées et perspectives de la recherche

“…Les graphes sont issus d'un modèle additif généralisé (modèle de type GAM) ;l es courbes en pointillé représentent les deux bornes de l'intervalle de confiance à9 5%.L es données utilisées pour cette figures ont issues de Bergès et al (2016).…”